


Dealing With the Devil

by hollyhock13



Series: Whumptober 2019 [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Detective Comics (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Angst, Batman: A Death in the Family, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Explosions, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, I’m a little bit sorry for this one, Prompt: Human Shield, Whump, Whumptober 2019, but DC should be sorrier, but then the bomb..., this is mostly post violence tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2020-11-24 03:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20900654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollyhock13/pseuds/hollyhock13
Summary: That’s what Robins do.





	1. Countdown

**Author's Note:**

> This is another take on a canon scene from a slightly different perspective. Again, it uses some things from the comic (the count-down, most of Sheila’s lines, etc.) but I do think this is my own interpretation of the scene.
> 
> As always, many MANY thanks to [ @Ursapharoh15 ](%E2%80%9C) for her help, and I hope you enjoy!

2:34

The door closes with an echoing slam, and Jason and Sheila are left alone.

Well, alone together. Jason wheezes from his position on the floor. Sheila yells at the door, struggling against the ropes keeping her against a post.

“Let us go, you monster!”

There’s no response. The clock ticks away.

1:56

“Help me!” Sheila shrieks, though she knows deep in her heart that this is her own doing. You don’t make deals with the Devil. “Aren’t you supposed to help people, Robin?”

Jason lifts his head just enough to see her face. He begins the arduous journey across the warehouse floor.

1:37

Sheila isn’t too far from his position anymore. Jason uses what little strength he has to pull his broken body towards her. It takes an eternity for him to prop himself up enough to start attacking the ropes holding her hostage. 

Sheila holds her breath. She betrayed this boy, turned him over to a monster. But here he is, trying to free her all the same.

0:57

The rope loosens. 

“...You’re free...” Jason wheezes. “...Run...For it...” He struggles with fingers as nimble as sausages to help her get free.

Can she really leave him?

0:43

“...Go...”

Sheila finally manages to shake off the rest of the ropes. She hesitates.

0:39

Jason collapses. His body has been pushed past its limits for too long. He can’t continue...even if it means he dies here.

0:23

Sheila makes a decision. She takes Jason as gently as she can by the shoulders and hauls him to his feet...foot.

“Come on. Let me help you.”

0:19

“We’ll both get out of here together.”

She gets under his good arm as best she can. They have to get out.

0:12

And for a moment, it’s possible. The door is within reach. 

“We’re almost there,” Sheila encourages the teenager leaning heavily into her side. 

0:07

She lets him down as gently as possibly with such a time limit, and scrabbles for the door handle.

0:01

“It’s locked! The Joker locked us in here!”

The two of them turn in unison to see the timer.

0:00

Jason lunges across the floor in an attempt to put himself between the bomb and Sheila even as the room goes up in a flash and a boom. 


	2. Time Run Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce comes looking for Jason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiiii. Sorry. I blame [@Ursapharoh15](%E2%80%9C) for this one tbh. I love you? 😘

Bruce speeds toward the warehouse, aware that every moment he isn’t there is putting his son at risk. The  _ Joker _ in  _Ethiopia_? Who could have guessed?

The warehouse is in sight, and some of the tension unspools in his gut. He’s here. He made it. Jason is—

_ ** BOOM! ** _

“_Robin_!” He urges the old truck just a little faster, faster than he’s sure it’s been driven before.

Just outside the radius of smoldering debris, he throws the truck into park, not even waiting for it to fully stop before leaping from the door. 

He scans the ruins of the warehouse visually, audibly, and then with every instrument he has for any sign of life. There, just a faint beat!

He scrambles forward until he can dig in the rubble. A hand, but no gauntlet? This isn’t Jason. He continues anyway, this person needs to be saved regardless. He just hopes,  _ prays _ to any god who might care to listen, that it won’t delay him too long.

An arm leads to a torso leads to a head. “Sheila Haywood?” He knows this woman. Jason’s...

She coughs, rubble, spittle, and blood spreading across her clothing. “Jason,” she mutters. 

“Where is he?” Bruce demands, perhaps a little too forcefully. 

“He tried...to protect me?” Sheila continues, seemingly oblivious to Bruce’s question. “Even after...everything. I betrayed him, and he still...”

Bruce is getting desperate. She betrayed his son, his wonderful, sweet, loyal son? “Where is he?” He demands again, this time with a small shake of her shoulders. He needs to find his son, before this switches from a rescue mission to a recovery one. 

“...tried to help me. His mother would be...proud.” Her eyes roll back and Bruce knows without checking that she’s gone. He tries anyway, to find a pulse or a hint of breath. There’s nothing, and eventually he has to move on. He has to find Jason, and this corpse will tell him nothing of value.

He picks meticulously through the rubble for almost an hour, his mind numb to the thoughts he’s having as he goes. He won’t believe it,  _ can’t  _ believe it. Not until he has no other choice.

The rubble is still warm from the explosion, but cooling as he works. Bits of concrete, steel and broken glass litter the ground and pile on top of each other. He searches for something, anything, any sign of his boy.

A flash of green. He spots it, not far from where he left Sheila to continue searching. Just a touch of green among the still-smoldering rubble. Bruce lunges for it before he can quell either his hope or his dread.

He moves rubble large and small, warm and cool to the touch until he can lift the tiny body out of the remains of the warehouse. 

He’s cool to the touch. Has been gone for nearly an hour.

Bruce wonders for a moment if he was still alive when Bruce arrived. And then, only then, do the tears start to fall. 


End file.
